A Wanderer in Venice eBook

he twitched a covering, which none had noticed, and
revealed in the middle of the ceiling the finished
painting of S. Rocco in glory. A scene of amazement
and perplexity ensued. The other artists, accepting
defeat, retired from the field; the authorities gazed
in a fine state of confusion over the unconventional
foreshortening of the saint and his angel. They
also pointed out that Tintoretto had broken the condition
of the competition in providing a painting when only
sketches were required. “Very well,”
he said, “I make you a present of it.”
Since by the rules of the confraternity all gifts
offered to it had to be accepted, he thus won his footing;
and the rest was easy. Two or three years later
he was made a brother of the Order, at fifty pounds
a year, in return for which he was each year to provide
three paintings; and this salary he drew for seventeen
years, until the great work was complete.

The task comprises the scenes in the life of the Virgin,
in the lower hall; the scenes in the life of Christ,
on the walls of the upper hall; the scenes from the
Old Testament, on the ceiling of the upper hall; and
the last scenes in the life of Christ, in the Refectory.
In short, the Scuola di S. Rocco is Tintoretto’s
Sistine Chapel.

We enter to an “Annunciation”; and if
we had not perceived before, we at once perceive here,
in this building, Tintoretto’s innovating gift
of realism. He brought dailiness into art.
Tremendous as was his method, he never forgot the
little things. His domestic details leaven the
whole.

This “Annunciation” is the most dramatic
version that exists. The Virgin has been sitting
quietly sewing in her little room, poorly enough furnished,
with a broken chair by the bed, when suddenly this
celestial irruption—­this urgent flying
angel attended by a horde of cherubim or cupids and
heralded by the Holy Spirit. At the first glance
you think that the angel has burst through the wall,
but that is not so. But as it is, even without
that violence, how utterly different from the demure
treatment of the Tuscans! To think of Fra Angelico
and Tintoretto together is like placing a violet beside
a tiger lily.

A little touch in the picture should be noticed:
a carpenter at work outside. Very characteristic
of Tintoretto.

Next—­but here let me remind or inform the
reader that the Venetian Index at the end of the later
editions of The Stones of Venice contains an
analysis of these works, by Ruskin, which is as characteristic
of that writer as the pictures are of their artist.
In particular is Ruskin delighted by “The Annunciation,”
by “The Murder of the Innocents,” and,
upstairs, by the ceiling paintings and the Refectory
series.